


Aftermath

by OswinTheStrange



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Magic, Nightmares, Temporary Blindness, healing spells, injuries, slight gore mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-04
Updated: 2018-02-04
Packaged: 2019-03-13 16:42:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13574658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OswinTheStrange/pseuds/OswinTheStrange
Summary: Shortly after coming back from the dead a second time, Rowena calls Reader for help.





	Aftermath

The last person you'd expected to call was Rowena MacLeod. Not that you  _weren't_  expecting her to call, just not so soon. Whenever the two of you would have an argument, one of you would go off and usually wait a few days, or sometimes weeks, if the argument was bad enough, to call and ask to talk. Your most recent argument was something tiny and stupid, but, of course, Rowena was more a fan of the word 'right' than she was of the word 'compromise'.

Raising an eyebrow as her name appeared on caller ID, you waited a moment, maybe to be mean, before answering. "Rowena! What a surprise!" you said.

"Y/N? I... I need help," Rowena whispered. Her voice was hoarse and sounded... scared. And broken. Immediately, fear and worry ran ice cold through your veins.

"Are you okay? What happened?" you asked.

For a few seconds, there was only silence. Then, Rowena spoke. "Lucifer," she whispered.

Your heart stopped. "Where are you?"

"Seattle. The Royal Hotel. Room 310," Rowena gasped. It sounded like she was holding back tears. Your heart hurt even more.

"I'll be there in a few hours," you said. You began rushing around the room, opening your bag and tossing your possessions towards it.

"Please, hurry!" Rowena pleaded.

"I will," you said. "Just hang on. Can you do that for me, sweetie?"

"I'll try," Rowena whispered.

"Okay, I'm gonna hang up now and I'll be there soon," you said.

Rowena actually hung up the phone before you did. After making a quick call to a taxi service, you slipped the phone back into your pocket and tossed everything into you bag and ran downstairs, not bothering with the elevator. You went straight pass the desk clerk, casting a small spell to knock him out for the next hour. The taxi arrived a minute later and you climbed in, casting a spell on the driver, telling him where to go and to step on it.

The drive to Seattle went quickly, all things considered, but not quickly enough for your liking. Still, you didn’t want to attract attention or get into a wreck, as that would slow you down even more. Once you'd arrived, you lifted your spell on the driver, only to cast another so he'd forget you.

You completely ignored the desk clerk who said you needed to check in, saying you were seeing a friend, and sprinted up the stairs. You were panting and exhausted by the time you reached the third floor, but you kept going, racing to room 10 and using magic to unlock the door.

Dropping your bag and closing the door behind you, you raced in, only to stop short as you peered into the bedroom. You stomach churned. Blood was splattered everywhere, as well as other... bits of a human body. The lingering smell of burnt flesh filled your nose.

Barely holding back the vomit that threatened to rise up your throat, you crept in. "Rowena?" you called out.

"Over here." Her voice, broken and scared, came from near the bed. You turned, ready to breathe a sigh of relief, only for it to get caught in your throat. She sat on the floor beside the bed, wrapped only in a blanket as she stared into nothing. She looked awful. Every visible inch of skin was covered in burns and scars. Her hair was patchy and uneven, some sections were burned or missing entirely. You could see how much she was shaking and holding back cries of pain as she sat there. When she turned her head towards the sound of your voice, her eyes were blank and unseeing.

You wanted to cry, seeing her in such a state, in such pain. But you held it back. Moving forward, you cautiously knelt down beside her.  You reached out your hands, but stopped inches from her skin. Would touching her only hurt her? You opened your mouth, but you didn't know what to say.

"I must be awful to look at," she whispered.

"What did he do to you?" you asked.

Rowena shook her head, biting her lip.

"Is there anything I can do to help? Anything I can get you or..." you trailed off, not knowing what to do or say.

"Not unless you can do something about the pain," Rowena said.

But you could. It was a spell Rowena had taught you way back when you'd first started learning magic with her. A spell meant to relieve pain, or at least lessen it. Raising your hands, you began muttering the incantation, moving your hands along her body, almost touching, but not quite. It was as close as you were going to allow yourself to get to her.

As the spell worked its magic, literally, Rowena breathed a sigh of relief, as the pain began to leave. You continued for a few minutes, hoping that this would help. Eventually, though, you felt you'd done all you could and lowered your hands. "How's that?"

"Much better," Rowena said, leaning her head back against the bed.

"Here, let me get you onto the bed. The floor can't be very comfortable," you said.

You slipped your arms underneath her, lifting her easily. You placed her on the bed, and she rolled over to her side, curling up into a ball. Next, you recalled a healing spell. This was more advanced than the other spell, but hopefully it would be just as effective as the other spell, considering your level.

More Latin chanting and moving your hands over her, and several minutes later you were done. She didn't look any different. You heart sank. You could only hope it would at least speed up the healing process.

"Is there anything else I can get you?" you asked.

Rowena was silent for a moment. Had she fallen asleep? "Would you... stay with me? Please?" she finally asked.

You moved around the bed, avoiding the gore decorating the room. You'd have to get that cleaned up, and soon. Sitting down next to Rowena, you gently placed a hand on her shoulder. You weren't sure how much she could see, but you could at least physically let her know you were there.

"You should try for some rest. You'll heal faster," you said. 

"I don't think I can," Rowena whispered. "I... I'm scared, Y/N." Tears gathered in her eyes, sliding down her face onto the pillow under her head.

"You don't have to be afraid, Ro. I'm right here," you said. "I can help you sleep, if you want."

A moment of silence. Then a nod. You gently placed a hand on her head and whispered a few words in Latin. Rowena's eyes fluttered shut and her breathing slowed. A dreamless sleep spell. You had a feeling you'd be using it quite a bit in the future. Rowena had warned you it could be dangerous, if used too much, but it was more than necessary right now.

You moved from the bed and to the room phone. Luckily, it hadn't been broken. You called the front desk, saying there'd been a bit of an accident and you needed someone to clean it up. A few minutes later, there was a knocking at the door. As soon as you opened, you whispered a spell, placing the cleaning woman under you control. You felt a bit bad, using so many spells to control people in one day, but you couldn't have the woman running off and telling someone.

The woman cleaned the room quickly and silently. You removed your spell, quickly adding another to modify her memory a bit, and gave her a large tip for her trouble. She thanked you, leaving twenty dollars richer.

Walking back to the room, you watched Rowena as she slept. She was still unmoving, except for the slight rise and fall of her shoulders as she breathed. Laying down beside her, you gently placed your hand on her shoulder again. If her sight wasn't back by the time she woke up, you wanted her to at least feel that you were there.

You lost track of time, falling asleep. A brief nightmare of finding Rowena in the same scene you'd found her earlier, but dead, woke you up. You had to check to make sure she was still breathing to calm yourself. After that, you drifted in and out of sleep, your heavy use of magic taking its toll.

Every time you opened your eyes, the room was darker, until it was completely dark. For who knows how long after that, all you saw was darkness. But eventually, the room grew lighter and morning came.

When it was light enough to see, you looked at Rowena. Her skin, while still burned and scarred, looked much better than yesterday. More of her hair was growing back and less of it was burned. You didn't know what her eyes would be like, but at least she was looking healthier. A few more days and she'd probably be mostly healed up.

You were tempted to get up, but without knowing how Rowena would be when she woke, you decided to stay put. You waited for several hours, the sunlight streaming through the windows moving across the floor. 

She stirred. Her eyes opened. Panic set in and her eyes widened. She sat up, moving to stand.

"Ro, it's me! Shhh, it's okay, it's me," you said, gently rubbing her shoulder. She placed her hand over yours, taking deep breaths. Her eyes stared blankly in your direction. She opened her mouth, trying to speak. Her voice cracked, rough from disuse. "Hold on, let me get you some water. I'll be right back." Her hand tightened around yours for a second, and then let go.

You got up, grabbing a cup from the kitchen and filling it with water, and quickly returned to Rowena's side. You held the cup to her lips. Normally, she would have taken it and insisted she could do something so simple herself. But she didn't, and instead let you hold it, focusing on greedily gulping down the water.

Once half the water was gone, she pulled away and you set the cup on the bedside table.

“Better?” you asked.

Rowena nodded, clearing her throat. “Thank you.” Her voice was still rough and croaky, but at least she could speak.

“How are you feeling?”

“Better than yesterday,” Rowena said.

“And your sight?”

Rowena sighed, looking down. “Nothing,” she said, bitterness lacing voice.

“It’ll come back,” you said. “You just need time to heal.”

Rowena frowned. “Well, at the very least, I don’t have to see what I look like,” she said.

“It's not… okay, it’s pretty bad, but it's much better than yesterday. A few more days and I’ll think you'll be mostly recovered. Until then, you'll just have to rest.”

“It's not like I can do much else,” Rowena muttered.

You gently kissed her forehead, holding her gently. “It’s just a few days. And I’ll be here to help with whatever you need, okay?”

Rowena nodded, leaning into you. She didn’t protest, but you knew she hated it. Hated being weak and hurt. Hated being unable to care for herself. Hated Lucifer for doing this, whatever it was he'd done, to her. You wanted to ask. But you weren’t sure how to. Not without bringing up painful memories, anyway.

You settled for just holding her. Until your stomach growled. When was the last time you'd eaten? When was the last time  _Rowena_  had eaten?

“Are you hungry?” you asked.

She shrugged. “Not particularly,” she said. “But I should eat, anyway."

You nodded, letting her go and standing up. “I'll call room service,” you said.

Rowena said nothing in response, laying back down. You walked over to the phone, reaching a hand out to pick it up. For a moment, you hesitated. What should you get for Rowena? You knew she'd want something fancy, like trying to pretend everything was alright. But was that really what she needed? Something simple would probably be better, but Rowena might not be very happy about it.

You went for the middle ground, ordering something simple, but fancy enough for Rowena's taste, and something simple for yourself, as well.

A while later, your food arrived. You took it, tipping the person who'd brought it up, and set everything out on the table. You helped Rowena to her chair. Not only was she blind, but she was still rather weak from her injuries, and she held tightly to you as you helped her.

Almost immediately, there was a problem as Rowena blindly reached for her silverware. And even once she'd managed to find it, there was still the challenge of directing it towards her food, and then her mouth. You offered to help her, and she waved you away, trying to do it herself. You had to silently applaud her efforts. You probably would've just been sitting there at a total loss of what to do, were you in her position.

After a few minutes, she glared at her food, or rather in its general direction, and sighed. "I... need a little help," she admitted.

You stepped behind her, hand on her wrist, and helped guide her hand where to go. From the look on her face, you could see she was hating every second. Still, you knew it was better than just feeding her yourself. That would only make her feel totally helpless, or like a child, and you weren't going to do that to her.

She said she was done when about half of her food was gone. You wondered if it was because she couldn't eat anymore, or she wasn't in the mood for you to continue to help her to eat. Either way, you helped her back to bed.

"Is there anything you want to do?" you asked. "Listen to music? Watch—uh, listen to some TV? Or do you want to go back to sleep?"

"I'm not spending all my time sleeping," Rowena said. "I have audio books on my phone. It's... it was next to me after I called you. I don't know where it went after that."

You checked the place you'd found her last night. No sign of it. You checked under the bed. Reaching under, your fingers brushed a rectangular object and picked it up. "Found it," you said. Rowena instinctively held her hand out for it, but let it fall when she realized she wasn't going to be able to do much with it.

After she gave you the code to unlock her phone, you selected the most recent audio book and hit play. With her settled in bed and listening to the book, you went back out to the kitchen area and sat down at the table. Your food had gotten cold, but you ate anyway.

As you ate, you wondered how long it would take for Rowena to heal. Most of her physical injuries probably wouldn't take long. Her eyes seemed to be the worst. You wondered what had happened that made her eyes so difficult to heal. You realized you probably didn't want to know.

You knew her mental injuries would be the worst. Whatever had happened had left her seriously traumatized. You recalled her expression, her tears, the fear in her voice, from last night. She'd been terrified, and was no doubt still terrified. But you wouldn't let her deal with it alone. You were going to be there for her.

The next few days passed slowly. Physically, Rowena improved every day. Her scars and burns disappearing and her strength returning. Soon, the only thing hindering her, physically, were her eyes. They were slower to heal, which meant you had to help her navigate the hotel room and with various tasks, like eating and showering. But, they, too, healed. She went from not being able to see anything at all, to just light, to blurry colors, and then to semi-solid and solid shapes. It took nearly two weeks for her vision to return. Once she could see, she all but demanded that the two of you move to a different hotel. She ended up choosing one several states away. Not that you blamed her choice. You wouldn't want to remain in the room you'd died in, either.

But even with her injuries healed and her sight returned, the mental scars still remained. A loud, sudden noise and she'd jump. Someone knocking on the door sent her hiding in the bedroom while you sent whoever it was away. Any sort of shouting from outside or the from the other rooms had Rowena trying to drown it out with music or the TV.

The nightmares were the worst part. There was no hiding in her dreams, no drowning or tuning it out. She was forced to relive what had happened to her every night. She'd wake up, crying and screaming, panicking and still reliving the worst moment of her life. You'd hold her and try to calm her down, try to remind her that it was over, that she was okay, that you were with her and would protect her. Some nights you weren't able to calm her down on your own, and you'd have to use a spell. You always felt bad about it, but she would reassure you later that it was fine. 

One night she broke down, telling you everything that had happened the day Lucifer killed her. Everything from her trying to hide and trying to fight, to showing her his true face, to crushing her skull with his boots, and then setting her on fire. She trembled and cried as she spoke, and you held her close, your heart aching and your mind conjuring up horrible, unsolicited images of what had happened. You knew the images in your mind were nothing compared to what had really happened.

"It's okay," you whispered, holding her close and rocking her gently.

"It's not," Rowena sobbed. "I feel like I'm never going to be okay again. I never feel safe! I'm always scared! I don't know how I can keep going like this!"

"You can. You're strong. The strongest person I know. And even when you feel like you can't, I'm going to help you, alright? And I'm going to keep you safe, I promise" you said. 

"You can't promise me that," she whispered. "You can't protect me from  _him_."

"Then I'll kill him. I'll find a way, and then I'll put his head on a spike. And he won't ever,  _ever_  harm you again," you said. And they weren't just words. You meant them. You'd kill Lucifer. You'd tear him apart atom by atom if you had to.  You'd make him suffer far more than Rowena had. And then she'd be safe. You didn't know if she'd  _feel_ safe afterwards. The memories would still be there. But at the very least, Lucifer would be gone, and she'd know that, and you hoped it would give her at least a little peace of mind.

A few moments passed quietly, only the sounds of Rowena's sobs filling the silence. Her sobs began dying down and she took a few calming breathes. "Thank you," she said, resting her head on your shoulder, "for everything you've done for me."

You placed a kiss on her forehead and said nothing, holding her tighter. She didn't have to thank you. She never would. You would always be there for her, no matter what. It didn't matter if you had a thousand sleepless nights, or if she screamed and ranted at you, or if you died while making sure she was safe; you'd do it in the blink of an eye. You'd promised you were going to help her and keep her safe, so that's what you were going to do.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to my awesome editor, Marrilyn  
> This got super sad. Hope y'all enjoy!


End file.
